It all began in London, UK, March 2020, right at the start of Covid.
Overnight, schools shut their gates and everyone was left scrambling to keep some sort of connection going between teachers, pupils and parents. We built a simple communication platform, a bit like a simpler version of Zoom or Teams, so that classes could carry on talking, sharing files and staying in touch when nobody could be in the same room. It did the job it was meant to do, and for a while, that felt like enough.
Then we started talking to schools and parents properly, doing the sort of research you only really learn from once you sit down and listen. And, as often happens when you get excited about an idea, our ambitions grew rather a lot. We started dreaming about teacher recruitment, event organising, an online shop, something like ParentPay, a bit of Mumsnet, even our own e-learning content. On paper it looked brilliant. In reality, we'd bitten off considerably more than we could chew.
The further we got into it, the more we realised just how much sits behind working with children properly. Safeguarding, teacher vetting, childcare regulation, all the checks and processes that exist for very good reason. Without proper investment behind us, and without the time it takes to do that sort of thing the right way, it became harder and harder to keep the whole thing moving. Eventually, as these things often go, the team went their separate ways and got on with their lives. I can't blame anyone for that. Building something from nothing is hard, and not everyone can stick around for the whole journey.
What was left was me. I'm the technical one, though I've spent plenty of time outside of code too, working in charities, working with children, and generally being the sort of person who can't quite switch off from wanting to make things better for the next generation. I'm also a parent myself, so I know exactly how much a good community, a reliable club, or a teacher who goes the extra mile can mean to a family.
So that's what Schoolmix is now. Not the grand, do everything platform we once imagined, but something smaller, steadier and, I think, more honest. A place to build community around schools, teachers, parents, carers and the clubs and services that make childhood a bit brighter. I've been building it in whatever spare time I can find, without a big team or a big budget behind me, just because I believe it's worth doing.
If it ends up helping even a handful of families, teachers or children's services find each other and build something good, then it will have been worth every evening spent on it. And if you're reading this and you fancy being part of shaping where it goes next, whether you're a teacher, a school admin, a parent, or someone running a children's service, I'd love to hear from you. This is very much a work in progress, built by someone who cares, and it'll be all the better with a few more people who care alongside me.
Get in touch. Let's see where we can take it together.